Meet Hugh Howie.
He’s a friend of Denise’s from way back. Just moved to the area.
Note the spelling of his name. He’s an artist and graphic designer. He is not, for instance, Hugh Howey, author of Wool, the sci-fi phenom all the kids are crowing about these days.
And yet, because people in general are a) inattentive spellers, b) stupid and/or c) lazy, Hugh Howie spends a lot of time in his day sifting through e-mails sent via his website intended for the eyes of the other Mr. H.
He finds it hilarious—and annoying.
What do people write about?
"Plot points, what they think of his stories, suggestions for future books. He appears to do pretty well with the ladies. A lot of ladies write.”
That’s the quasi-humorous part. The annoying part is that if you type Hugh Howie’s name correctly into Google, the world’s great search engine automatically returns Hugh Howey’s website at the top of your search. Hugh Howie’s site is about five links further down. So those who type in H-O-W-I-E are actually promoted to write Howey, but still somehow manage to annoy Mr. Howie.
Basically, if you’re actually looking for Mr. Howie, Google assumes you have typed the name incorrectly. “The guy’s screwing up my SEO!” Howie says.
Let’s set the record straight going forward, shall we? You can follow my Asheville neighbor, Mr. Howie, on Twitter @aHugeProduction